~ A site for my creative writing endeavors, writing prompt responses, and experimentation.

Trademark Confidence

Even Edison needed a break. He and Batchelor had not been able to find a material that would create incandescence in a bulb for a commercially feasible time period. So he turned to other technical challenges in need of attention.

To be viable, Edison felt that the incandescent material needed to have high resistance combined with a small radiating surface. The bulb also must be capable of working in a “multiple arc” system such that each bulb could be turned on or off without interfering with other bulbs.

These were significant challenges, and the reasons others had not been able to produce a reliable incandescent system. “The crucial point was the production of a hair-like carbon filament, capable of withstanding mechanical shock, and susceptible of being maintained at a temperature of over two thousand degrees for a thousand hours or more before breaking.” Furthermore, the filament needed to be supported in a vacuum chamber “so perfectly formed” that it would withstand thousands of hours of use in which “not a particle of air should enter to disintegrate the filament.” All of this needed to be manufactured at low cost and large quantities.

With his trademark confidence, Edison acknowledged that only he, “in the enormous mass of patiently worked-out details,” could have solved the problem. With Batchelor’s help, of course.

While toggling between platinum-iridium and carbonized-paper filaments, Edison managed to improve the vacuum process enough to extend the time of incandescence. He also improved the quality of the glass bulb. On October 21, 1879, Edison had a major breakthrough. By carbonizing a piece of cotton sewing-thread bent into a loop or horseshoe form and sealing it in a vacuum bulb, Edison was able to light up the lamp to incandescent brilliance for more than forty hours, “and lo! the practical incandescent lamp was born.”

Maybe going full circle with the technology. There’s a new incandescent filament from the M.E. Department at MIT that supposedly more than doubles efficiency over LED’s. Supposed to produce a more natural light as well, and not such a waste-disposal hazard. Maybe another one of those, “Try and try again…” solutions.http://news.mit.edu/2016/nanophotonic-incandescent-light-bulbs-0111

It is a pdf but is a really good read. Contains the history of many more electrical engineering jargony sort of terms. I did not know that much about the contributions of GE (and thus Edison’s baby) in the 1920’s.

Thanks for the PDF. Some interesting background there. GE is both emblematic both of Edison’s success and failure. It was formed as his business and competitor’s businesses were merged, and resulted in him being pushed out the business to a large extent. More than 100 years later, the reputations of Edison and GE are still linked.

I haven’t seen Crescent Dunes, but I’ve seen both the Ivanpah (which is now the world’s largest) and Solar 1/2 arrays near Barstow. Very impressive. I read somewhere that they can store heat in molten salt to be released when nighttime air-conditioner use increases demand after sunset. However, the tower boilers have to be initially re-heated every morning by burning natural gas, and that’s caused some controversy regarding their carbon footprint.

The “SEGS” array at Kramer Junction on Hwy 395 is also truly massive. It uses a series of trough-shaped mirrors to concentrate light onto long pipes that I think heat pressurized ammonia. I believe the combined SEGS sites (three- if I recall correctly) total about 1-million mirrors, and can produce over 350-megaWatts.

I didn’t know all that you added. Thanks for that. It was rather impressive from the sky. I’ve also seen complaints that it incinerates birds that might fly through it, but I haven’t done any research to check out the veracity of such claims. It’s in a desert, so there can’t be too many birds hovering about.